Izumo Taisha

Among the several classes of shinto shrines in Japan, ranked according to importance and seniority, the taisha class is one of the highest, and one of the highest among the taisha shrines of Japan is the ancient Izumo Taisha, or Izumo Grand Shrine in Shimane prefecture on the north coast of Japan. It is so old that it’s founding predates Japanese written history and it is widely believed to be the first shrine in Japan, with its origins in the mythical beginnings of this country. In the old days this magnificent shrine was said to have been much bigger and the fact that archeaological digs have revealed pillars made up of three giant tree trunks each three meters in diameter makes this claim very believable. If it took that kind of trees to make just one out of dozens of pillars it must have been huge indeed. The building in these photos is merely the ceremonial performance hall for weddings and such, the Kaguraden, but the shimenawa, the giant straw rope hanging at the entrance is the biggest in Japan and is said to weigh about 5 tons. The rope is now the symbol of the shrine for most people around Japan. The red threads you can see if you look closely on the photos of the shimenawa are tied to five yen coins that have been thrown into the straw. If you get it in just right it will stick. As an interesting side note, the care takers of this shrine is said to be descendants of the first Gods of Japan and thus related to the Imperial family. The present head care taker is the 84th in line and took aver after the death of this father in 2002. Eighty four generations of the same family! Imagine that!

Since the God and Goddess associated with this shrine is also the Gods representing marriage in Japan, this shrine is a very popular place to tie the knot!

Oh, I am soooo envious! I’ve always wanted to see that shrine! I have a bit of a fetish for shimenawa, and this one is by far the finest in all of Japan. And that’s super interesting about the lineage of the 84 generations of priests too – thanks for dishing out that excellent tidbit.

If the rope weight 5 tons, the log holding it above must be more than 2′ diameter
and itself weigh 2~3 tons isn’t it ? —– it huge ! Almost insane.
It’s mean, it needs to have the same effort to push up a stone on top of Stone-henge !
And keep doing it since the time of Stone age. = Insane again.

Yes. The color is called Shuiro (朱色, vermillion) and the paint is called Ninuri (丹塗り) or Bengaranuri (弁柄塗り). If you can’t find it in a store (not very likely for ordinary people) you can make something similar by using similar ingredients (Occra Rossa, Fe2O3 · nH2O. etc.) The ingredients are on the page in the link below! Good luck.http://sawanodogen.com/reproduction/coat/

Thanks for the profound information.
Is there a (religious or other) reason why this special colour is used at most shrines and not just ‘blue’ or ‘green’ ?
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Can you also tell why some Shrines (Heian, Fushimi, Itsukushima) use this colour and some don’t (Ise, above Izumo, Meiji)?
Is there a historical, architectonic or other reason? I couldn’t find any information about that.

No-one knows for sure, but the vermillion or Shuiro, was made popular by the Yin dynasty in Ancient China, and this cultural influence was later picked up by Koreans and later on Japanase. The Shinto of Japan has more color matches with the Yin dynasty, such as using white for mourning. This kind of red is also the most ancient form of pigment paint that human beings were able to make, so it could be based on a much more ancient tradition. It took quite a while for humans to be able to make other colors than this in sufficient quantities. Also, this color contains iron which works extremely well in preserving wood, so it could be that they noticed buildings painted in red lasted longer than other buildings. Today this color is considered almost holy and it would be impossible to sign a document or use a stamp without this red ink, in both China, Japan and Korea. You will also find this color to be popular with ancient greeks, Scandinavians and Jews, just to mention a few.

I have my own theory as to why some shrines are red and some are brown black or white. But it is a controversial subject so I will keep it to myself! (^-^;)